More than 50% of Apple Juice comes from China? (1 Viewer)

[Don Solosan]

"That might mean that the grow them in the US, ship them to China to be juiced and ship the juice back."

According to their website, Martinelli's apples are organically grown, the processing is done at two U.S. sites (one in CA, don't know about the other one) which are coded on the bottles, and the product is approved kosher. So in this case, I don't think so.

As for the toys you threw out, were they all painted? It seems the article was mainly about lead content of paint.

 

[PhillJones]

Apparently, they were using lead paint to color the plastic itself. The most concerning thing is that a plastic bath toy, which didn't look or feel 'painted' was running. If you handled it for a while, you got red and yellow stains on your hands.

It's not the first time this has been a problem with China. There was a massive toy jewlery recall at one point and a browse round pubmed finds several case reports of researchers tracking down a source of lead poisoning to be a Chinese plastic toy.

I found a bunch of disturbing facts about Chinese toys, the level of lead poisoning of children in China and America, and lots of concern among health professionals.

They were talking about it on NPR. The conclusion of their investigation was that China lacks a decent safety regulatory body and that the American companies doing the importing are doing very little to enforce any standards. When we thought about it that way, it's like buying toys that are not subject to any safety standards. So we've just banned all Chinese toys.

It's like a one household trade war.

 

[Cees Alons]

To be fair: the Chinese didn't "invent" those yellow lead dyes. Or used them on purpose knowing the bad effects.
Other countries used them too. It was believed that in "normal use" the dye wouldn't leave the plastic.

At a certain point, when those bad effects were discovered, it got forbidden to use it (toys, beer-crates, etc.). Apparently, some Chinese firms (and perhaps some others) didn't react as promptly as those in more controlled countries were forced to.


Cees

 

[Mort Corey]

As a kid I was always coaxed to eat all my dinner because there were other kids starving in China. Guess they're eating better now (but I doubt it)

Mort

 

[Marianne]

That's my point, Cees. There is not enough oversight by many of the US companies who import items or food from China.

 

[Matt Souza]

Welcome to the lower cost, cheaper to produce, just trying to make a buck, Walmart America. American buyers need to look in the mirror, and until the majority of american buyers start putting their money where there mouth is, it's only going to get worse.

More oversight? We wouldn't be at this point if Joe American would buy items made/grown/produced in the US instead of looking at the price tag.

 

[Marianne]

I agree, Matt. The problem with food is that there is virtually no requirement for information on country of origin on labels. So it's difficult for the consumer to make that choice, even if they want to.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Strange example: Kobe Beef. Wagyu cattle are bred&fed in America, shipped over on the boat, dispatched & graded, then shipped back via Airplane and sold as Japanese. Japan only requires that the cows are butchered in the region to get the official 'Kobe' stamp.

 

[Matt Souza]

Just playing the other side, but COO labeling is hard to pin down. Example, beef in this country comes primarly from within the US, but it is also imported from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, etc... A COO label will be on the box in the back of the store, but will the butchers get the right label on the product in the case properly? What about ground beef, it may be ground in the store, but it may include some trim from other sources, how do you label that?

It's hard problem to pin down. I believe that we have the safest food supply chain in the world, imported or not. With 300 mil people in this country, somebody, somewhere is going to get sick/die over the most mundane of products. The US is only about 4.5% of the world population, the other 95.5% must be doing something right when it comes to their food

 

[Don Solosan]

Just saw an interesting one. A package of grapes with "produce of U.S." on one side of the label, and "produit of E.U." on the other.

 

[Marko Berg]

Don, it probably said "produit de E.U." (Etats-Uni) which would be French for "produce of U.S."

 

[Don Solosan]

Ah-ha! Thanks, Marko!

 

[Don Solosan]

A new development in the tainted toy story:

BEIJING, China (AP) -- The head of a Chinese manufacturing company accused of shipping hundreds of thousands of lead-tainted toys later recalled in the United States has committed suicide, a state-run newspaper said Monday.

 

[Dave Mack]

One of the best presents I ever got was a really good juicer.
We make our own juice here at Casa Mack so we know EXACTLY what goes into it and where it's from...!

Today we had a red and green apple/pear/grape/carrot/celery/ginger juice. Dynamite!

VERY worth the investment!

d

 

[PhillJones]

Lead paint toy story update

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1187...googlenews_wsj

More toys to be recalled.

This won't be the end of it. Toys'R'us have announced that they're expanding their American and European manufactured toy section.

 

[Dave Mack]

Amazing it takes something this crazy for people to realize that the "Walmart-ization" of America might not be all that great a thing...

:frowning:

 

[MikeH1]

Funny too that as the US economy tanks there's this anti-chinese movement. Lead paint in chinese toys? Old news.

A little too convenient with the timing IMO.

 

[Dave Mack]

Well, I don't think poisoning animals with tainted pet food was a conspiracy due to the economy...

 

[LanceJ]

Speaking of a mandatory country of origin law........

http://www.americansforlabeling.org/

This from a 2003 article on the BBC news site:

COOL now voluntary but new bill would make it mandatory

Doesn't look like it ever passed. :frowning:

 

[Marianne]

Some States already have laws requiring country of origin labelling for some food products. I live in Florida and all fresh produce must have country of origin labels on the package or on the shelf label.

Regarding the most recent toy recall it appears that the Chinese company is responsible for the lead paint. But who is responsible for the small magnets that can be swallowed by children. Is it the manufacturer or the company responsible for the design of the toy (Mattel). If it is the fault of the design then it seems that Mattel is trying to shift blame to the Chinese. If the design was not to blame but the manufacturing process was (the magnets not securely fastened, for example) then it is still down to Mattel to inspect their products.